


A Place To Call Home

by puptart



Category: Astoria: Fate's Kiss, Labyrinths of Astoria (Visual Novel)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 00:57:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7384660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puptart/pseuds/puptart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you like someone, sometimes you say a little more than you meant to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Place To Call Home

**Author's Note:**

> It was brought to my attention that there's a severe lack of fanfic for AFK, which I thought was really sad. Here's a (very) little something fluffy about my absolute favorite dashing demigod.

It’s another late night in the office, though it’s just clean up by this point, thank the Gods. You’re eager to get started with your field agent training, of course, but after everything that happened with Deukalion and the stolen artifacts, you can admit to wanting a bit of a break. The paperwork is slow, and boring, and most of it could technically wait until tomorrow, but…

The light under Alex’s office is still on. They’ve been in there all day, only peeking their head out every once in awhile to check up on everyone before disappearing back behind the door. Admittedly, it’s been a bummer. You and Alex have agreed that it’s for the best if you keep your relationship quiet, and of course you know to be professional while at work, but still. Not seeing them for more than ten minutes total over the course of the day has made time stretch on.

“Hey bestie,” May says, leaning back in her chair to look at you. “It’s time to go, girl. Ready?”

You bite your lip, torn. Part of you was hoping Alex would come out before you clocked out, so you could ask if they wanted to get dinner together. 

“Uh,” you drum your fingers on your desk, glancing back at Alex’s door, firmly shut. May follows your eye, and her eyebrows bounce up.

“Oh, waiting for the datemate, hm?” May teases. You roll your eyes, but don’t deny it. “Just go peek in before we go. You’ve been staying late every day this week, on  _ top  _ of all that business in Olympus. We’re leaving on time today!”

You laugh, conceding her point. “Okay, okay.”

She shoos you on before she begins to gather her stuff at her desk. You try to approach the door as casually as possible, but you still feel like every eye in the office follows you. While you’ve tried to keep things between you quiet, Alex Cyprin being off the market has been a hot topic. May swears she had nothing to do with the breakneck speeds that the news spread around the office, and you’re actually inclined to believe her. 

Knocking on the door with your knuckles, you wait until you hear a distracted sounding “Come in,” before turning the knob. Keeping the door open is probably more professional, or at least keeps anyone from wondering what’s happening inside the office, but you nudge it shut anyways. 

“Hey, boss,” you say lightly, stepping further in. 

Alex’s desk is a complete wreck. There’s files everywhere, papers overflowing onto the floor, and you realize belatedly that you never saw Alex leave for lunch. A surreptitious glance into their trash can tells you they didn’t order anything in either. 

“Oh! Em, hey.” Alex jerks their head up to look at you, belatedly realizing you’ve come in. There are dark circles under their eyes, but they smile winningly at you anyways, almost bright enough to banish the exhaustion from their face.

You frown. “Did you go home last night?”

“Yes, of course,” they say, though there’s a flicker of guilt in their eye. 

“Did you do anything besides change clothes?” You ask, and they give you a sheepish grin. “Alex, come on.”

“Playing catch up this week has been…. Trying,” they admit. You give a significant look around the room at the wreckage.

“Why didn’t you have someone come help you?” You ask.

“Everyone’s already busy enough. I know you and May have been pulling double duty too,” Alex says, but you shake your head.

“Come on, we’re going home,” you say. “You need food. And sleep.”

“Home?” they blink, surprised. 

“Yes,” you say, going around their desk to tug at their arm until they stand up. “May’s waiting too, so you know she’ll-”

You freeze, realizing what you’ve said.

‘Home’. 

Alex is blushing furiously, and normally it’s a welcome sight, but you can’t concentrate on it while you feel your own cheeks burning as well. There hadn’t been any conscious decision to it, but you realize now that you’ve started considering Alex’s apartment as home as much as you do your own apartment. 

“I-I,” you stammer, too flustered to think up some cover for why you said what you said, or to think of something else to change the subject and distract Alex. They clear their throat, regaining their composure more quickly than you.

“Let me just clock out and gather my things,” they say, giving you a small smile. You nod furiously and walk out of their office as quickly as you can without it being considered running. 

It’s really, really far too soon to be saying such things, isn’t it? You’ve known Alex forever, and you know you love them, but neither of you has brought up the subject of cohabitating yet. Sure, you spend as much time sleeping over at their place as you do your own, but still, calling it ‘home’ might be a little presumptuous.

May takes one look at your face and goes into ‘Worried Best Friend Mode’.

“What happened?” she asks, an edge of protectiveness to her voice.

“Nothing,” you squeak, and immediately duck down to grab your purse so you don’t have to face her. It’s not even a big deal, they didn’t say anything about it. 

Then again, they didn’t say anything about it. 

You wish you knew what they were thinking.

“Oookay, if you say so,” May says, clearly not believing you. “Is Cyprin coming out of their office any time soon?”

“Yep!” you manage to say, maybe a touch too cheery, emerging with your purse in hand. 

“Great,” May says, smiling at you. “So, are you coming over tonight? Bruno has band practice late, so it’ll just be me at the apartment if you want to watch a movie or something.”

“She can’t, actually,” Alex says, their footsteps so quiet you hadn’t even heard them approaching. It makes you jump a little, but then their hand is pressing against your lower back to steady you. “We’re going home for a date night.”

May’s face breaks into a feline grin. “Oh, well then. Don’t let me slow you two down.”

You groan when she winks at you, and the entire elevator ride down to the lobby is spent ignoring her significant looks and waggling eyebrows. It doesn’t help that as soon as you’re out of sight of the rest of the office, Alex drapes an arm over your shoulders and pulls you close. Nervous as you are over the whole slip up in their office, you can’t help leaning into their hold. 

It’s hard to believe sometimes that it’s only been a few weeks since they first called you into their office, asking for your help with Aphrodite’s missing artifact. Just a few weeks ago, and you’d been harboring a crush you’ve had since you were just a kid, unknowing that you’d be kissing the object of your affections, that they’d be kissing you back. A sigh escapes your lips, too soft for May to hear, but Alex glances down at you and smiles. You smile back, and lean a little more heavily on them.

After you part ways with May, the two of you head off for the parking garage. Things don’t feel awkward anymore, but as you approach Alex’s car, you feel a little like you’ve forced their hand here. Maybe they’d have every intention of just having a night alone after work, after all, and you’d come in and insisted they make time for you instead. Gnawing your lip, you say, “We don’t actually have to go back to your place, if you don’t want to.”

They stop walking, their arm bringing you to a stop as well. The garage is dim around you, and mostly empty, though a few cars are coming in for the third shift people. Looking up, you see Alex giving you a contemplative look. 

“...Actually,” Alex says, pulling their arm back to grab their keys out of their pocket. There’s a nervous look in their eye, but they smile as they twist on of the keys off the ring. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, but I wasn’t sure if it was too soon.”

You heart flutters, hope growing. “Sure about what?”

Holding up the key, they say, “About giving you this. It’s an extra key to my apartment.”

Oh.

“Oh,” you say, unable to formulate anything more substantial than that as a reaction. Alex shifts their weight.

“I know how I feel about you, Em,” Alex says, clearly struggling to maintain eye contact with you. “You mean everything to me, and I just don’t want to push you into anything too fast, but… Well, you said  _ home _ , and so I thought now might work.” They wet their lips, and hold the key out a little more insistently. Having rebooted your brain, you reach out and manage to take it without fumbling it. Alex smiles. 

You can’t help but smile as well.

“Feel free to use it whenever,” they say. “I want you to feel like my place is your home too. I’ve cleared out a space in a few drawers for you, so you can, you know, put some clothes over as well. And you already have a toothbrush, and I bought some of that shampoo I saw in your shower… Wait, is that too far? I didn’t try to make a note of it or anything, but it smell nice-”

It’s cute, listening to them ramble nervously, but you finally take mercy on them and grab their shirt to tug them down into a quick, hard kiss. It’s not quite as passionate as you’d prefer, but you are kind of at work. Alex is a little dazed looking afterwards anyways, so you count it as a win.

“Thank you,” you say, swiping at their lower lip with your thumb. “I’ll get one made for you too, so you can come to my place.”

Not that you can think of a reason they’d want to spend time at your apartment; it’s pretty tiny. 

“I’d like that,” they say, voice low and a little rough. It sends shivers up your spine, and you slowly pull away before you can forget why you stopped kissing them to begin with.

“Should we get moving?” you ask, pocketing the key. A slow, dark smile works its way onto Alex’s face, as smooth and decadent as chocolate.

“I think so,” they say, leaning in for one more kiss, like they can’t help it. “Let’s go home.” 

  
  



End file.
